How can we reach our 2020Greenest City Targets?

How can we reach our 2020 Greenest City targets?

Encourage Eco-Industrial Parks & Eco-Business Zones

The city can develop an eco-business strategy to help build networks of businesses who work together to : reduce their impacts, resource consumption rates, strain on public infrastructure, and, of course, *costs*.

Eco-Industrial Parks and eco-business zones are effective models for greening new and existing industry/business activity: By acting collectively, and taking lessons from natural systems, we can create new green business opportunities and transform existing employment areas to use less resources like water & energy, and to attract progressive new green businesses to town.

Many cities and regions have created special economic zones to stimulate economic activity. The City of Vancouver could create a special "environmental" zone to stimulate environmental activity. In this zone, new eco-friendly building technologies could be test-piloted without having to adhere to local building codes. This zone could also be used as a demonstration site for new environmental initiatives and technologies.

This could be done at two scales. The City could fosgter one showcase project at a larger scale, and also a decentralized network of smaller, neighbourhood scale projects. It could also be demonstrated on commercial (retail) as well as industrial lands. "Reverse retail" is going to be needed to become part of the consumer products economy as EPR (producer responsiblity) kicks in as an alternative to traditional municipal curbside garbage & recycling. We will need not only industrial enterprises to manufacture "green" products, but also commercial enterprises to get used products back from consumers so they can be repaired, refurbished, upgraded, re-sold -- or eventually routed to recyclers for remanufacture.

NOTE: Big Dave's idea "Create a special "environmental" zone in Vancouver" has been merged with this one.

"Many cities and regions have created special economic zones to stimulate economic activity. The City of Vancouver could create a special "environmental" zone to stimulate environmental activity. In this zone, new eco-friendly building technologies could be test-piloted without having to adhere to local building codes. This zone could also be used as a demonstration site for new environmental initiatives and technologies."